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Arashi’s Sho Sakurai pens rap lyrics for KAT-TUN’s new song Crystal Moment

From left to right: KAT-TUN's Tatsuya Ueda, Kazuya Kamenashi, and Yuichi Nakamaru; and Arashi's Sho Sakurai. (Photo: Twitter/ntv_olympic)
From left to right: KAT-TUN's Tatsuya Ueda, Kazuya Kamenashi, and Yuichi Nakamaru; and Arashi's Sho Sakurai. (Photo: Twitter/ntv_olympic)

J-pop idol group KAT-TUN will be releasing a new song Crystal Moment, with the title and rap lyrics created by Arashi’s Sho Sakurai.

The song will be used as the theme song in Japanese television channel NTV’s coverage of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.

This is the second time Sakurai has written the rap lyrics for a song used in the Olympics coverage, after Arashi’s Kaze No Mukuo E that was used for the 2008 Summer Olympics also held in Beijing.

Sakurai came up with the song title Crystal Moment to describe the crystallisation of the athletes’ daily grind, and how they sparkle in a snowy or icy landscape — a reference to the Winter Olympics games mostly involving skiing and skating.

As it was the first time Sakurai penned rap lyrics for other artistes, apart from Arashi’s and his songs, he found the production refreshing and looked forward to how KAT-TUN would interpret the rap.

He also thought that KAT-TUN would bring out the aggressiveness and charm in the rap. Sakurai hoped that the athletes, Olympics staff and KAT-TUN’s fans would recall the memories of the winter of 2022 whenever they listened to the song.

KAT-TUN’s singers were excited to perform Crystal Moment.

Kazuya Kamenashi felt honoured to sing the theme song for NTV's Olympic coverage and was thankful that Sakurai, their senior from the same talent agency, helped to write the rap lyrics.

Having admired Sakurai for a long time, Tatsuya Ueda was thrilled with the unprecedented collaboration and hoped to convey the feelings behind the rap lyrics in KAT-TUN's own style.

Yuichi Nakamaru said he looked forward to singing the rap lyrics by Sakurai, who has been reporting on the Olympics for many years as NTV’s newscaster. He also gave his support to the athletes and hoped for a great performance.

It has not been revealed when KAT-TUN’s Crystal Moment will be released, but you can catch a snippet of the rap in this behind-the-scenes shared by a fan of KAT-TUN: